According to the Merc, the new logo “was quietly introduced last month.” The introduction was so quiet that this newspaper article was the first time most faculty had heard about it.

Now, I’ve felt for a while that the old Victorian logo was too fussy, but the new one is awful. Not only is the shape and color ugly, but the shading of the “c” makes it look like “California” is being erased from the University. Perhaps that is a deliberate message on the part of the “leaders” of the University, who are hell-bent on privatizing the whole thing and carving up the remains for their wealthy friends. It also looks like a lower-case “c”, further denigrating the role that California has in the University of California.

I only hope that like “new Coke” this logo is quickly recognized as a marketing disaster and that it disappears as quietly as it appeared.